DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Residents of a small Palestinian village in the northern Israeli region of Galilee painted the dome of their mosque with the blue-and-white colors of the Israeli flag to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding the Jewish state.
"Our religion encourages love and closeness among nations. Jews, Muslims, we are all cousins, right?," village mayor Hisham Zoubi told Israeli newspaper Maariv on Tuesday.
"We are all citizens of the state of Israel. As far as we are concerned, there is no difference here between Jews, Muslims, and Christians."
Zoubi said residents of the village, with a population of 2,000 people, do not fear criticism of their action. Instead, they hope to unite Arabs and Jews.
"A Jew who enters the mosque will not feel hostility, but rather will feel at home."
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).
